[Archived] Derby County @ Ewood Park, 21/10/15

[mustard]

Anyone who saw a team playing for a win last night was at a different game IMO. Both teams looked laboured and perfectly happy to sit back and hold on for a draw. Kinda reminded me of when United won the title at Ewood (1-1) with the ball moving along the back line with little pressing from the opposition.

Rovers fans tried chanting 'attack attack attack' late on in the game last night but to no avail. I felt we could have orchestrated a smash and grab vs a Derby team that weren't up to full speed. I was pleased with our defending (although I feel a more potent Derby could have opened us up) but I was incredibly disappointed with the lack of service/support to Rhodes.

Some have claimed it was tactically spot on last night. I beg to differ. If you want an example of a tactical masterclass, with superb defending with meaningful attacks, then you should have watched Arsenal's showing vs Bayern where Wenger had them perform brilliantly.

It was a good point in isolation but our points return is truly woeful at the moment.

Ps. regarding the wages debate. We are certainly top 10 for wages. Whilst they might not be as high as they were, we have a host of internationals and ex-Prem players at the club who will no doubt demand a pretty penny. I still maintain that squad-wise we have a strong one, certainly capable of mixing it in the play-offs. We are just missing one key piece to the puzzle...

[Gav]

In any case they're both above us in the league aren't they? Speaking of criminality, Birmingham's owner is in prison, and they can't even offer a player £10k a week, but they're second!

Well last season we had Ipswich and Brentford as yardsticks, both are still championship clubs going nowhere, now we have Brum, they'll go nowhere either I'd wager.

Its just laughable that posters can change their minds to fit the argument week in week out and some lap this up!

We're Blackburn Rovers, thats all that counts, we have 3 idiots running the club from India, a chairmen thats frankly useless and a manager out of his depth and posters think we should be in the playoffs.......

[K-Hod]

Well last season we had Ipswich and Brentford as yardsticks, both are still championship clubs going nowhere, now we have Brum, they'll go nowhere either I'd wager.

Its just laughable that posters can change their minds to fit the argument week in week out and some lap this up!

We're Blackburn Rovers, thats all that counts, we have 3 idiots running the club from India, a chairmen thats frankly useless and a manager out of his depth and posters think we should be in the playoffs.......

The crux of the matter Gav- if we had Gary Rowett or Mick McCarthy in charge- would we have 12 points from 12 games, I'd say that was unlikely, wouldn't you?

[gumboots]

Gumboots, it was most definitely not typical of last seasons matches. 'Turgid' describes a lot of those games last year - even when we won.

Derby are more than a decent team. The crowd were upbeat at the end. No boos. Remember those? Taylor got a massive standing ovation when he went off. As did Stephen Warnock. Great gesture by the home fans. The atmosphere has changed. So has the mentality of the team.

Make your own mind up. Choose a game to attend. You might be surprised.

I was intending to go last night - I had to be elsewhere, so in the end I couldn't. Just sounded to me like a good one to miss or I might have been put off again. When I do eventually get round to going again, I want to feel a bit of excitement - not a lot; I don't even mind if we lose. I just want to feel a little bit of the buzz i used to get.

[Blandy]

It all depends on context. If Derby were on top of their game and we managed to grind out a point, then fair enough, but from the sounds of it they weren't at the races and the game was ours for the taking.

Maybe 11 players in blue & white did their job and stopped Derby from being on top of their game! I think the tactics last night were to nullify Derby and try and nick a goal from a set-piece, not a Bowyer fan but if the team was set-up to

stop Derby getting behind us then he got that spot on!

[Gav]

The crux of the matter Gav- if we had Gary Rowett or Mick McCarthy in charge- would we have 12 points from 12 games, I'd say that was unlikely, wouldn't you?

Who knows?

Why not add Chris Hughton to that list also, he's top of the league....

We've got Gary Bowyer and thats not going to change, so I see absolutely no point in wishing we had managers from other Championship clubs that can't get their teams promoted either.

[Pedro]

2 wins from 13 is it now, for what? The second or third time under his stewardship??

Ince was sacked for 3 wins in 17.

Berg sacked for 1 in 10.

Appleton won 4 in 15.

Kean was Kean but to date, unfortunately has the best win % of any Rovers manager in the Championship.

He is a manager who simply doesn't get enough wins and has us falling away from the pack all of the time. There is not an argument that stacks up against that.

He'll be abdolutely buzzing with another dreary game and clean sheet.

Enough excuses, enough selling us bull excrement, get them winning or just get out and give someone with belief a go.

[Al]

Its his opinion and I for one welcome it.

The interesting thing was that plenty agreed with him actually Al.

And plenty don't. They too are entitled to their opinions and entitled to make them known. You may agree with him. Many do not and he reacts to them like a spoilt child. Let him fight his own battles.

[RoverNev]

2 wins from 13 is it now, for what? The second or third time under his stewardship??

Ince was sacked for 3 wins in 17.

Berg sacked for 1 in 10.

Appleton won 4 in 15.

Kean was Kean but to date, unfortunately has the best win % of any Rovers manager in the Championship.

He is a manager who simply doesn't get enough wins and has us falling away from the pack all of the time. There is not an argument that stacks up against that.

He'll be abdolutely buzzing with another dreary game and clean sheet.

Enough excuses, enough selling us bull excrement, get them winning or just get out and give someone with belief a go.

I agree, but it's the games we should be winning that we fall short. Hull away, QPR away, Derby at home, they're not bad results at all. It's the Cardff at home, Bolton at home, Huddlesfield away and MK Dons away that I'm sorry, he should be managing us to a win in those games

[grizfoot]

Strange game last night, the tempo was virtually non-existent from the early stages with both teams taking their time over free-kicks and throw-ins. Everything looked a little laboured as if both teams had planned on not conceding and hoping to nick a goal from somewhere but never choosing to over-commit in the pursuit of a goal. The positives are that we looked solid defensively although playing 4-4-1-1 at home with two defensive-minded central midfielders you should expect to be really. Credit to Marshall at right-back, I was worried pre-game, but I thought he did a good job and if anything looked better than Henley in that postion. Taylor did a decent job on his return, but long-term I think we have to be playing Lawrence in the no.10 spot because he offers a greater attacking threat and he seems to possess the ability that a lot of top attacking players have in that he is able to move, pass and control the ball at great speed.

Given different circumstances a point against Derby at home would be a good point. But given how the season has gone thus far it was frustrating to see us settle for a point when a little more attacking intent could have easily seen us win that game. Part of the problem boiled down to the fact the bench read: Goalkeeper, Defender, Defender, Defender/Midfielder, Defensive Midfielder, Defensive Midfielder, Attacking Midfielder. I know we were missing a few attacking options in Conway, Koita & Brown but it just goes to show how little squad depth we have if we don't have another striking option deemed good enough to even make the bench and that the only remotely attacking option we could bring on to try and change the game was the inexperienced O'Sullivan.

I can only hope that last night's performance was a lesson in preserving energy for Saturday, a win against the Dingles and maybe we could all forgive the cautious approach to this game.

[RoverNev]

Just seen on Twitter that it's Salgado's birthday today......what we'd give to see his little legs tearing up and down in front of the Riverside at the moment

[T J Hooker]

Well I'm sorry if thats your opinion but I disagree totally.

If you think we were crap than I suggest you were watching a completely different game.

i sugest you was watching another game!(whatever that means, its just a sugestion)

[arbitro]

We seem to have dropped Ipswich this season as the yardstick and replaced them with Birmingham for the sake of argument

Throw Bournemouth into that, I'll add Wimbledon under Dave Basset, and we can all moan and groan that a club under embargo, thats been decimated over the past 5yrs by mismanagement and alleged criminality isn't running away with the league

If I ran this place you'd be having 30 days off for a starter, calling Parson post "An insult to fans", you've more front than Blackpool, i'd give you time to think about that.

But they are both valid arguments as examples of clubs who, with the right structures off the field are run better than us and one in particular who are probably worse off than us financially but their manager doesn't bleat about it.

Bowyer is using these as excuses to cover up for his many deficiencies.

[only2garners]

On last night's game, yes, it wasn't the best to watch although I think with Conway on the pitch we might have nicked it. he was the biggest loss for me last night. I can't think of a single set piece which went to a Rovers player! Corners and free-kicks were woeful.

For me, we have to tie Lawrence up til the end of the season if we can't do anything permanent, I really like the look of this lad, and he seems to be improving with getting more game time. Delfy looked good in patches but his end product is sadly lacking.

Windy - whilst on the whole I agree with your analysis of last night's game these two sentences don't make sense. Who do you think took the majority of the set pieces? I think it's fine when you've got some good men in the air to hit on set pieces that you occasionally put a hard low cross in to catch the defenders unaware. It doesn't work if you keep trying it all night.

What particularly pleased me last night was the defensive performance from the whole team. Derby were never allowed to settle and I'm inclined to think that was what caused a disjointed performance from them. Think back to about this time last year when Derby played us off the pitch - they were probably the best team I saw last season. This time we probably had slightly the better of a much tighter game, despite the fact that derby have spent heavily in the interim.

[JBiz]

O2gs- I agree, Many of us have craved improvement in this side of the game, let's at least acknowledge it.

[DavidMailsTightPerm]

Strange game last night, the tempo was virtually non-existent from the early stages with both teams taking their time over free-kicks and throw-ins. Everything looked a little laboured as if both teams had planned on not conceding and hoping to nick a goal from somewhere but never choosing to over-commit in the pursuit of a goal. The positives are that we looked solid defensively although playing 4-4-1-1 at home with two defensive-minded central midfielders you should expect to be really. Credit to Marshall at right-back, I was worried pre-game, but I thought he did a good job and if anything looked better than Henley in that postion. Taylor did a decent job on his return, but long-term I think we have to be playing Lawrence in the no.10 spot because he offers a greater attacking threat and he seems to possess the ability that a lot of top attacking players have in that he is able to move, pass and control the ball at great speed.

Given different circumstances a point against Derby at home would be a good point. But given how the season has gone thus far it was frustrating to see us settle for a point when a little more attacking intent could have easily seen us win that game. Part of the problem boiled down to the fact the bench read: Goalkeeper, Defender, Defender, Defender/Midfielder, Defensive Midfielder, Defensive Midfielder, Attacking Midfielder. I know we were missing a few attacking options in Conway, Koita & Brown but it just goes to show how little squad depth we have if we don't have another striking option deemed good enough to even make the bench and that the only remotely attacking option we could bring on to try and change the game was the inexperienced O'Sullivan.

I can only hope that last night's performance was a lesson in preserving energy for Saturday, a win against the Dingles and maybe we could all forgive the cautious approach to this game.

It is quite interesting to read about attacking intent - both teams full backs pushed into attack when the opportunity arose. TBH in the first half their right back looked more like a winger - similarly Marshall and Olsson got forward to good effect. What was impressive by both sides was the tracking back - and I think it was this more than anything that led to the 0-0. From a tactical perspective it was an interesting match - with two former coaches going head to head.

[tomphil]

I think we set out our tactics last night perhaps thinking there'd be more attacking from Derby but they were of a similar mind to us so it played into our hands somewhat. By design or default who knows but a pleasing thing was whilst we didn't show enough ambition and step it up a gear when we maybe could have they also for once managed to counter any changes Derby made to try and open us up.

Maybe last season if we'd employed that strategy and stifled midfield at home and away v Derby/Norwich/Brentford etc we could have ground out a few more points. Of course there is a danger it could become the norm v other teams when it shouldn't but we'll see in the next few games whether the manager really has grown a pair or not.

[roverandout]

The likes of Murphy, Etuhu, etc weren't signed by Bowyer. Bowyer has had to pick up the mess left by others and is now having to sign free transfer players with a restriction on the wages. So, no, I don't believe that given the circumstances that Bowyer and his staff have performed badly. I've always believed that this would be a slow rebuild and so it is likely to prove. You only have to look at Bolton - who have gone through a similiar experience - to see that we are not unique in this. Coyle, Freedman and Lennon have all tried and failed to revive them so clearly switching the manager is no gurantee of success.

It's not a slow build though is it? It's a slow regression, rovers are clearly ggoing backwards under bowyer, without Rhodes goals the last few seasons and this, rovers would have been in a far worse position and still are now even with him finding form. I can guarantee you he will be off in Januaryand his goals wont mask over bowyers ineptness.

[chaddyrovers]

And plenty don't. They too are entitled to their opinions and entitled to make them known. You may agree with him. Many do not and he reacts to them like a spoilt child. Let him fight his own battles.

Instead of keep mention me(dont know why btw) why not comment on the game? Put your points accross.

Tell me which you dont agree with is fine with me.

Or even better use the ignore function button.

JB, I know you attending the Q and A. I believe you went with Tom M. Correct?

[chaddyrovers]

Double post.

[yoda]

Instead of keep mention me(dont know why btw) why not comment on the game? Put your points accross.

Tell me which you dont agree with is fine with me.

Or even better use the ignore function button.

JB, I know you attending the Q and A. I believe you went with Tom M. Correct?

He didn't though and you jumped in again

Double post.

Why do you always want the last word ?

[Gav]

He didn't though and you jumped in again

Why do you always want the last word ?

And you've absolutely no need to get involved at all, go and serve someone a dim sum.

[yoda]

And you've absolutely no need to get involved at all, go and serve someone a dim sum.

Bunkum, it's an MB.

It's every time some one has a different view,

You're not in Bastwell now.

[Gav]

Bunkum, it's an MB.

It's every time some one has a different view,

You're not in Bastwell now.

Stop picking on me

[T J Hooker]

yaaay a 0-0 home draw, the only way is eeeeer? about where we are in the league now(give or take a couple of places) come the end of the season, oh joy.